What are the 5 root styles of Karate from Okinawa...?

[CrippledFingers]

What are the 5 root styles of Karate from Okinawa...?

that's the question I need to write a 2 page essay on. I don't know much about them. What is there? off the top of my head I'm getting:

Shuri te

Naha te

Shito Ryu

Tomari te

and... Kenpo or... Shotokan?

If anyone could help me out on this topic I'd like that.

[jarrettmeyer]

I would answer a little differently...

The three original styles were Shuri-te, Naha-te, and Tomari-te, named for the locality in which they were taught.

From these three, two styles become predominant: Shorei Ryu and Shorin Ryu.

There are others on this forum who could write books, I'm sure, but those are the basics.

[Jussi Häkkinen]

Shorin-ryu and its subschools, Goju-ryu, Uechi-ryu, family styles and smaller traditions.

That pretty much covers it.

Naha-te etc. names are modern (1900's) creations. "Shorei" is a bit unexact, too.

[JimmyNewton]

google it.

[CrippledFingers]

I did and found the same website that Jarret found, or at least that info came up first.

I don't know what Jussi's talking about. I don't need to simply find the 5 styles that's not 2 pages. I need to talk about their founding among other things.

Of course I'm going to google it. I'm asking for more help from people who might know things.

[P.A.L]

1- Family styles of okinawan te

2- shuri te

3- naha te

4- tomari te

5- okinawan kenpo

or based on styles

1-all shorin ryu

2- Okinawan Gojo ryu

3- Uichi ryu

4- Ryuie ryu

5- okinawan kenpo

[Sauzin]

That is exactly what I was going to post. I was debating wether or not to include Ryuie-ryu (since I don't know of any styles derived from it) and Okinawan Kenpo (since I'm biased on this one). Still it's kind of neat to be in a style that made someone elses list.

[CrippledFingers]

Well, here's what I got:

5 founding styles of Karate

The original intent of this essay was to identify and explore the history of the 5 founding styles of Karate that originated from the small island of Okinawa. With that in mind I scoured the internet to see what it had to say on this subject... after 15 minutes the subect in question was deemed uninteresting and I have decided to write about the adventures of a small boy named Jimmy bean instead.

One day, on a small island far from here, Jimmy was... Just kidding. Really tho it seems that the idea having 5 founding styles is really opinion based. The story a greater chunk of the population on the internet seems to be going with is more about 3 main styles that have just taken on new names over time. Those styles are as follows:

-Naha-te named for the city of Naha is influenced by the softer techniques of Kempo [southern Chinese styles] including breath control and 'ki'. It was characterized by a more defensive attitude with grappling, throws and locking techniques. Naha-te is recognized today as Gojuryu and To On Ryu.

-Shuri-te named for the city of Shuri is influenced by linear techniques and acts of attack as a response for defense and draws from Northern China Styles of Kempo. Shuri-te is recognized today as Shorin Ryu and Shotokan.

-Tomari-te named for the city of Tomari is influenced by both the hard and soft techniques of Kempo. Tomari-te is recognized today as Masubayashi Ryu.

As Okinawan Gojuryu is our style I shall try to focus on that particular style throughout the rest of this essay. There were three epochs mentioned with three masters respectively in their evolution in the history of Gojuryu. First was the time when the school was known only as Naha Te of Kanryo Higaonna during 1870s of which time the islanders were forced to surrender their nationality as Japanese. Second was when the school was named Gojuryu by the group headed by Chojun Miyagi during 1930s of which time Japan engaged in the World War II. The third and final time period was when the national structure of Gojuryu organization was established in mainland Japan by Gogen Yamaguchi Hanshi during the post war period. His organization has been called All Japan Karatedo Gojukai (Zen Nihon Karatedo Gojukai) since that time.

The naming of Gojuryu came about more by accident than design. In either 1927 or 1930, one of Chojun Miyagi's top students, Jin'an Shinzato, while in Tokyo attending a Martial Arts convention was asked by numerous martial arts masters as to what school of martial arts he practiced. As Naha-te had no formal name he could not answer this question. If he had not answered, his art would be looked down upon and given amateur status. Legend says that he answered "Hankry-ryu", which means the Way of Half Hard. On his return to Okinawa he reported this incident to Chojun Miyagi. Chojun Miyagi Sensei reportedly liked Shinzato’s idea and took it one step further. Either legend or truth, after much consideration, Chojun Miyagi decided on the name Gojuryu (hard and soft school) as a name for his style. The name Gojuryu was derived from a Chinese Kempo poem of an ancient Chinese Text written on Military Science called “Bu-bi-Shi”. The proper Chinese translation would be “Wu Bi Shii” (a classical Chinese text on martial arts and other subjects) and the proper spelling is something like ‘Wu pei Chih’. The Chinese sound for ‘P’ and ‘W’ are sometimes pronounced as the roman letter ‘B’ in English (just as Kung fu is English where it is actually or truly spelled as Gung Fu and pronounced closer to G instead of K). Cool, no? This line, which appears in a poem describing the eight precepts of the martial arts, reads "Ho Goju Donto" (the way of inhaling and exhaling is hardness and softness). The whole poem reads as follows:

1. The mind is one with heaven and earth.

2. The circulatory rhythm of the body is similar to the cycle of the sun and the moon.

3. The way of inhaling and exhaling is hardness and softness.

4. Act in accordance with time and change.

5. Techniques will occur in the absence of conscious thought.

6. The feet must advance and retreat, separate and meet.

7. The eyes do not miss even the slightest change.

8. The ears listen well in all directions.

I bet you never thought you'd see a poem comming out in the middle of my essay. That's real skill right there.

Back on topic, there are other styles of Karate that passed through Okinawa but they seem less focused upon in this giant unholy database known as the internet. I shall list them momentarily... now:

Shindo Jinen-Ryu (today's Ryobu-Kai) which was named by its founder Yasuhiro Konishi. The name means “Godly, natural style, Complete empty-handed way”.

Wado Ryu was named by its founder Hironishi Ohtsuka. The name translates as “the study of Budo placing one in harmony with the Universe”

Kushin Ryu, as named by its founder Ueshima Sannosuke Sensei translates as “Sky-Heart” and (as similar to Wado Ryu) is based on the idea of the Universe & Man as the center and they exist in harmony. (on a side note Ueshima Sannosuke is a name used by ninjas everywhere in anime)

Shotokan, The naming of the style actually came about directly from its founder Gichin Funakoshi as Shoto was his pen name. He was convinced to name his style because his students were already communicating it as such where as the style was still called “To-te” however the school was known as the house of Shoto or Shotokan.

Shito Ryu, Kenwa Mabuni (classmate and very close personal friend to Chojun Miyagi) had studied under the same teacher as Miyagi Sensei; Kanryo Higashionna (Higaonna) as well studied with Yasutsune Itosu Sensei. He named his style Shito Ryu by combining the first Kanji from each of his teacher’s names. (I always thought you were saying Chido Ryu, and on that note Chidori means bird. I just thought there was some connection there)

Those are all the styles I have uncovered during my quest for knowledge. And as i have not yet reached 2 pages I shall add this interesting and somewhat related fact - In 1998, the Dai Nippon Butokukai 武徳会 recognized Gojuryu Karatedo as the only form of Karatedo to be an ancient form of Martial Art. This places Gojuryu Karatedo into the same catagory with other ancient Martial Arts such as Kenjutsu, Aikijutsu, Kobujutsu, Jujutsu and others. This also marks a historic point in the history of Karatedo [in general]. The "Dai Nippon Butokukai" is fundamentaly a Japanese society however Gojuryu Karatedo is of Okinawa foundation making Gojuryu Karatedo not only the first ever form of Karatedo named as an ancient Martial Art but also the first Okinawa Martial Art being recognized as a Bujutsu. Cool, no?

But that is nothing commpared to THIS-- oh wait I just realized I've been typing in size 10 font, not the universally accepted standard of size 12 like I first assumed. This particular interesting fact will have to wait till the next essay as I seem to have breached my 2 page limit with a simple text-size adjustment.

------------------------------------------------------

That's it. I'm open for critistizim. It was mostly entirely plagerized from one site imparticular but my sensei doesn't even know what a mouse is. So I'm not too worried about that.

[Shorin Ryuu]

My only criticism is you were supposed to discuss "founding styles" of karate from Okinawa.

If you mean "founding" in a historical sense you really would have to limit yourself as someone mentioned to a brief discussion of family styles, and then Shuri, Tomari and Naha te. Stuff like Shito Ryu, although it tries to combine lots of both Naha and Shuri te kata in their curriculum and things, are not "founding styles", historically speaking.

I'm not talking about merits of any styles, just the "founding" nature of them. Which goes back to the same family styles, Shuri, Tomari and Naha.

Um, being a biased Shorin Ryu guy, I'd have to say it isn't just a "linear" style. We have a lot of tight circles (and some large or obvious ones). I think there are better ways of describing the differences between, say Shuri Te and Naha Te than that.

Yes, I rambled. I'm extremely tired right now.

[P.A.L]

change the title to " okinawan Gojoryu and some other styles"